


Drew Tanaka

by Alexandra989



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/M, Gen, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-08
Updated: 2015-03-08
Packaged: 2018-03-16 21:54:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3504119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alexandra989/pseuds/Alexandra989
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Silena always thought Aphrodite was all about universal love, and not just romantic love. But Drew saw it differently. Aphrodite was the goddess of love, beauty and lust. She wasn't Eirene, goddess of peace. Breaking hearts was what Drew did. But then there was Lee Fletcher.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Drew Tanaka

Drew crouched by the corner of the Aphrodite cabin, her multi-coloured eyes surveying the silent camp. The fire at the hearth was still flickering but the goddess Hestia was not there. A sliver of moon hung in the star-streaked sky overhead. Drew strained her ears for sounds of any movement, particularly harpies. She picked up on the occasional roars of monsters outside the camp's borders, but nothing more.

All seemed to be clear. She took a deep breath and sprinted. Her feet carried her across the green, straight towards the Apollo cabin opposite. The gold walls of the cabin were dark and dull at night, but that was for the better. Drew was careful not to run into the light being reflected from the Artemis cabin, directly opposite the golden cabin she was headed to. Despite the thin crescent, Cabin 8 still shone like it was the moon itself.

Lee was already waiting. Drew ran right into his open arms and he breathed in her Christmassy scent of nutmeg and pine. They stayed in each other's embrace for a long time, listening to the quiet sounds of each other's breaths and the distant monsters. "Remember, you can't come here tomorrow night." Lee said.

"Do you really have to go?" Drew sobbed silently into his shoulder. "What if the drakon kills you?"

"It's been allowed to terrorize the camp for far too long," Lee said. "We- my siblings and I- have to send it back to Tartarus as soon as possible." Drew was slightly taken aback by his angry, determined tone. Lee, like most of the other Apollo kids, was pretty carefree and laid-back. But then he kissed her. "Don't you have any confidence in me?" In the semi-darkness, Drew saw a smile stretch across his face.

"Of course I do, but..." Drew trailed off. "Just promise me you'll be okay."

"I promise. And which part of the drakon would you like? Do you think Silena will let you mount the head of a drakon on your cabin wall?"

"Just come back in one piece. That's all I want," Drew said. "And please, don't mention Silena to me."

#

Drew knew she shouldn't be watching, but she watched nonetheless. Her eyes followed Lee's quick movements as she ducked and rolled, firing arrow after arrow at the drakon. Despite the entire force of the Apollo cabin, the drakon didn't seem to be nearing defeat. Drew stayed hidden behind a bush, biting her freshly-manicured fingernails in terror.

Part of her felt small. There was Lee Fletcher, her secret boyfriend, who was a son of Apollo and not much of a fighter. Still, he had volunteered himself and his entire cabin to drive the drakon away from the camp borders. And what could she, Drew, do? She could barely hold a dagger properly and had once nearly killed Lee when he tried to teach her archery. She only had her voice, her gift of charmspeak.

Drew hadn't been born with the ability to charmspeak. When she first arrived at camp and heard about the Aphrodite Rite of Passage which had been abolished by Silena, Drew wanted it to be resurrected. It would be fun to break the hearts of others, just like hers had been crushed back in her freshman year of high school. Though Silena had ardently refused, Drew still went around breaking hearts, and developed a reputation for it. Eventually, her mother granted her charmspeak.

That was until she met Lee Fletcher. He was the only boy she had ever tried to charm who didn't like her only for her looks and grace. He loved her as genuinely as first loves could be, and eventually Drew couldn't help falling in love.

Still, she had a reputation. What if she displeased her mother? What if she became the laughingstock of her cabin?

Lee had looked hurt when she confessed, but he still agreed to meet up in secret behind his cabin each night. And Drew loved him even more for that, but she still wondered if it was evil of her to choose her reputation over the boy she loves.

At the same time, Drew was afraid of getting her own heart broken again.

The drakon was driven away from the camp, and the Apollo kids trudged back in, victorious but all looking like they'd been mud-wrestling. As Lee headed to the cabins and out of sight, Drew took a compact mirror out of her pocket and checked her reflection.

When are you going to get over yourself, Drew? she silently asked.

#

"Told you I could do it," Lee beamed.

"You almost got yourself killed!" Drew said.

"I know!" Lee grinned. "Look, I promised you I would be okay, right? I don't go back on my promises. Oh, and by the way..."

Lee reached into his pocket and drew out a large, hard drakon scale. Even in the semi-darkness, it gleamed bluish-green. "Beautiful, isn't it?" Lee said. "Looking at this, you could never imagine it came from a beast as horrible as the Aethiopian drakon, don't you think?" He handed it to her. "Here, you can have it. Couldn't bring back the head, sorry."

Drew laughed.

#

Drew stepped forwards. "I want to fight as well."

The Ares cabin burst into peals of laughter. Some even went to the extent of rolling on the floor and clutching their bellies. Drew straightened her back and looked down her nose at the Ares kids.

"What are you going to do? Talk to the monsters?" Sherman, one of the Ares kids, said, his face contorted in laughter.

"We won't teach you to fight even if you charmspeak us into doing it, mainly because, how on earth do you teach a child of Aphrodite to fight?" howled another Ares kid.

"Hey, I have a better idea. Why don't you just charmspeak yourself into fighting?" Mark, another Ares camper, said, eliciting more laughter from the entire cabin.

Clarisse La Rue, however, was not laughing. She surveyed Drew, her eyes slightly narrowed, head tilted a little to one side. "You are an Aphrodite?"

Drew nodded.

"Silena Beauregard's sister?"

Drew stiffened at the sound of Silena's name. Her jaw tensed and her hands balled themselves into fists. Only a few days ago Silena had berated her about the heartbreaks she had caused. Silena was always under the impression that Aphrodite was all about universal love, and not just romantic love. But Drew thought differently. Aphrodite was the goddess of love, beauty and lust. She wasn't Eirene, goddess of peace.

What was it to Silena if she had a career breaking hearts once? Besides, Silena knew nothing. She had Charles Beckendorf who loved her, and she probably had never suffered a broken heart.

Being a natural warrior, Clarisse was always alert when it came to her opponents. She watched them closely in battle, observing their movements and determining their weaknesses. She noticed right away the changes in Drew's expression and manner. Before Drew could say anything, Clarisse spoke again.

"Get lost."

#

"Lee, you already did your part with the drakon. Do you need to fight in the battle of the labyrinth?" Drew grabbed Lee by the arm and held on tight. "Why don't you help out with the medics? Maybe you could teach me something about healing as well..."

"Drew." Lee reached up to cup her face. His blue eyes had lost their usual spark and were filled with distress. Drew couldn't stand to see him like that. "I'm not a good medic. It would be better for me to be out there, helping with the battle. Please, let me go."

Drew eased her grip but didn't quite release him. She didn't care if any campers saw her, though the camp was almost deserted and remaining campers were too busy running to Zeus's Fist. Having never gone on a quest, Drew didn't know what it was like to face death right in the face, but at that moment, with the camp under attack and monsters everywhere, Drew understood the fragility of a demigod's life. "I'm going to drop this act, Lee. I'm going to let it be known that we're together."

"But you said-"

"I know. My mom, my cabin, my reputation. But I don't care anymore."

Lee gave her a hug. She couldn't see his expression.

"Promise me you'll come back," she said.

An explosion sounded. They broke apart. Lee's expression was serious.

"Drew, I have to go. If anything happens, know that I love you." He gave her a quick kiss and hurried off.

"If anything...? Lee!" Drew ran forwards, but Lee was already a long way away, notching an arrow in his bow as he ran.

#

Clubbed by a giant, they said.

Drew leaned against the scorched trunk of a tree, trying to stem the flow of tears. She didn't even care if any monsters found her, let them come.

"You promised you would come back," she cried silently.

But she knew Lee hadn't promised anything. That made her wonder even more if somehow he had known. Drew knew the children of Apollo had some degree of prophetic powers. Did Lee somehow had an inkling that he wouldn't survive the day?

#

Silena sobbed into her pillow for hours on end. The entire Aphrodite cabin listened, feeling sorry for their cabin counselor. Drew, however, found it strange. Watching Silena grief for Beckendorf was like watching her inner self. She had never made it known that she and Lee had been together, and thus never grieved in front of the other campers.

For the first time ever, Drew couldn't help feeling a little sorry for Silena.

#

"She was a hero."

Drew gritted her teeth. A volcano seemed to be bubbling within her, ready to explode. Silena was no hero. She was a traitor. A freaking traitor. She was an ally of Kronos. Kronos, whose army had invaded the camp. The giant that killed Lee had been in Kronos's army.

Drew sat alone in the deserted cabin, glaring at Silena's empty bunk. The other campers were holding a funeral for the campers who had fallen in the Titan war. "You deserve what you got," Drew spat at Silena's bunk.

#

Drew became the counselor of Cabin 10 after that, and the first thing she did in her new post was resurrect the Aphrodite Rite of Passage. If she couldn't have a whole heart, no one should, either.

The only thing that displeased her even more was the fact that Drew easily developed crushes on boys who reminded her of Lee Fletcher, including that Jason Grace.


End file.
